Days before hordes of hipsters in skinny jeans and dark glasses convened in central Texas for South by Southwest (SXSW), the buzz around the Austin Convention Center was all about food. This was in part because for the first time in the 16-year history of SXSW Interactive—the geeky stepchild of the music festival—the lineup included a panel about food blogging.
Other than the free food given out to absorb all of the free beer, there has never really been a direct connection between food and SXSW (though foodie festivalgoers have long created their own eating itineraries involving off-site trips to local restaurants, taquerias, and barbecue joints). But now that the economy is forcing gourmands and microwave cooks alike to spend less, how to prepare and consume food—from buying locally to finding the best lunch specials under five dollars—is at the forefront of everyone’s minds and all over the Web. People are approaching food differently, and everyone wants to write about it. As Hugh Forrest, event director for SXSW Interactive (SXSWi), explained, “There seems to be a burgeoning food-blogging scene out there I wasn’t particularly aware of” before this year.
But what makes this blog about hamburgers better than that one and—even trickier—how does someone with an Internet connection and a deep love for ground beef generate income from his or her blog?
On the fifth and final day of SXSWi, more than 100 people—most of whom already had food blogs of their own—packed into a conference room to find out. In the panel “Nom Nom Nom: The Secrets of Sucessful Food Blogging,” moderated by Cupcakes Take the Cake blogger Rachel Kramer Bussel, Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York offered insight on becoming a part of the local food scene, and Addie Broyles of Relish Austin stressed the importance of posting regularly and embracing social networking tools like Twitter to develop an audience. But perhaps the most important lesson came from panelist Zach Brooks who writes the hyper-local Midtown Lunch. As he stressed, restated, and reiterated yet again, “Make your blog about something specific, even if it’s a recipe blog.” The problem with so many food blogs, Brooks surmised, is that they’re too general. “If someone doesn’t know exactly what your blog is about from the first time they visit from an external link, they won’t find it useful and probably won’t come back,” he said.
For panelist Kalyn Denny, that something specific is her collection of South Beach Diet–inspired recipes. Denny started writing Kalyn’s Kitchen after losing 40 pounds on the diet, and although most of her blog traffic now comes from Google recipe searches, it is her personal stories of cooking and eating these very specific meals that keep her regular readers coming back for seconds.
With the advent of companies like FoodBuzz, which advertises on food-related websites, it is possible to turn a passion for writing about food into a money-making venture—which is exactly what Bussel wants to see more of.
“I hope the panel gave people the sense that there’s room in the blogosphere for more food blogs, which I believe is true,” Bussel said. “As long as they are targeted and know exactly what their aim is.”
What do you think—is there room in the world for more food blogs?
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